Top Five Things Business Owners can be Doing Right now During the Coronavirus Pandemic

We work with a wide array of business types and industries, over the past two weeks we have seen a dramatic difference in the way this pandemic has affected those businesses. Some of our clients have been mandatated to close, some have been forced to lay-off employees and some have seen an increase in business.

No matter where you fall on that scale, if you find yourself with more free time than normal, there are some things you can be doing now to help improve your business when we come through this on the other side.

Top five things you can do now:

1. Organize your database: Many clients were in need of sending out some type of communication to current and previous customers to alert them as to how the Coronavirus was affecting their business. Many of those clients did not already have a database to work with and were scrambling to assemble names, email addresses and contact information. Organizing your database now can help save you time in the future and be useful for marketing campaigns. You can simpily segment and save your client lists in a microsoft excel file, or you can consider using and integrated CRM tool to help keep you organized like sales force or hubspot. Did you know you can also export your database from quickbooks and from your linked in page?

2. Get Social: Now is a great time to let your audience know that you are still around, temporarily closed etc. You can also let them know the various ways in which they can help support your business by doing the foloowing.

• Sharing your content on social media
• Writing online reviews
• Buying gift cards

People are currently looking for ways they can help support local business, let them know they can help by sending some social love your way.

3. Create Content: Most of the time our clients are too busy to create content, if you find yourself with some extra free time then consider taking a look at your brand copy, create some emails, write some blogs…

• Review your mission statement, vision statement, value proposition statement etc. and be sure they are still in line witth your goals and vision.
• Review your website copy, take a look at your product descriptions, landing page copy, bios, portfolio, project descriptions etc. now may be the time to update that content.
• Create some videos, this could be an update from you about the situtaion, you could start recording some product demonstration videos, or educational videos about your services etc.
• Consider creating a content calander for the upcoming year, map out when and how often you want to publish blogs, social media posts etc. Map out key points of the year for your content, this may be around certain holidys, seasons, sales etc. 

4. Optimize Your Online Presence: Now could be a good time to start working on increasing your online presence, so when this crisis resolves, you will be in a good postion to increase your market share.

• Right now people are looking for ways to help local businesses, encourage them to write online reviews for your buseinss on places like google, yelp, facebook etc. online reviews will help to increase your search rankings. 
• Start writing blog content for your website.
• Consider investing in a new website and use this time to engage a designer or developer to start gameplanning.
• Add content to your site in the form of recipes, blogs, completed projects, testimonials etc.
• Be sure your information is up to date on online directories and social media pages. 

5. Look for Ways to Help: People will remember how you responded to this crisis. Look for ways you can help and engage in your community to help improve your public image. This may be in the form of offering good content or entertainment to help time pass, or it may be delivering food to your local hospitals or providing transporation and supplies to the elderly. Look for ways you can help your community within CDC guidelines.